• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.11
• /
• pp.93-100
• /
• 2015

Purpose - The objective of this research is to investigate whether national culture influences consumers' service evaluations. The services industry is receiving increasing attention from academia and practitioners as its position grows in global markets. Standardization or localization is a traditional managerial decision in global business. As the boundaries of services expand across national borders, firms are required to decide whether to standardize services or adjust to local needs. Though it is imperative to reflect global perspectives in marketing theories, these perspectives are mostly based on Western conceptualization of the world. Through a comparison of consumer groups from two culturally remote countries, service quality evaluation mechanisms are examined based on similar stimuli. The study tries to expand service marketing perspectives across national borders. Research design, data, and methodology - Eastern and Western countries are known to be culturally distinct. One Eastern and one Western country were chosen: an Anglo-Saxon country (the U.S., England, and Australia) and South Korea. In Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the differences between the two are pronounced. The Anglo-Saxon based countries share many similarities. Samples of the same sites are targeted. Questionnaires using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL) and a customer satisfaction scale were distributed. Utilizing Hofstede's typology of culture, the service evaluation mechanisms of the respondents from the two groups are evaluated. Three hypotheses are proposed from the review of the literature. These are service evaluation habits, importance of service quality dimensions for the individualistic/collectivistic countries, and strong/weak uncertainty avoidance cultures. Consumers from the individualistic countries are considered to care about themselves and demand a higher level of responsiveness and assurance. On the other hand, consumers from high uncertainty avoidance cultures are assumed to rely more on tangible questions of service quality, as these are the only predictable service quality indicators. A t-test and regression analysis are applied to validate the constructs. Results - The respondents from the Anglo-Saxon countries are more generous on service evaluations than Koreans. Researchers have indicated that Americans tend to give higher service evolution scores than European, Mexican, and Korean counterparts. The tendency is the same here. The sample from Anglo-Saxon countries demonstrated higher service evaluation scores on every dimension of SERVQUAL. For the second hypothesis, the respondents from the collectivistic culture rely less on core service dimensions (assurance and responsiveness) due to their tendency to place more value on group harmony than individual interest. However, the third hypothesis was not validated. Conclusions - The study attempted to expand the scope of service marketing to reflect cross-national perspectives. Service quality is known to have a strong influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty behavior. However, this research demonstrated that individuals from different cultural territories respond heterogeneously to the same stimuli. Scholars argue that national cultures are main factors in such deviated behavior. Scholars and global managers should be aware of differences in consumer value judgment mechanisms such as satisfaction, expectations, and perceptions.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.155-172
• /
• 2006

The importance and meaning of smell/taste information on online shopping are studied. The first hypothesis deals with this issue directly. We measure the perceived quality and purchase intention at the context of online shopping with/without smell and taste information. As expected, subjects show higher perceived quality/stronger purchase intention of a bar soap and vitamin C product when smell and taste information are provided. Following Peck and Childers(2003), the moderating effects of Need for Smell and Need for Taste are tested at the second hypothesis. Subjects with High in Need for Smell/Touch show stronger responses in terms of perceived quality and purchase intention. The level of trust about the online shopping mall provides interesting results. When the trust level of the online shopping mall is low, the smell/taste information play more important roles in improving the perceived quality and purchase intention. Subjects at the not-so-trusted shopping mall context result in higher perceived quality and purchase intention if perceptual information is provided. One of the theoretical contributions of this study includes the identification of critical information in online purchase decision making-smell and taste. On top of vision and hearing information, smell and taste information also can play critical roles when consumers do online shopping even at the shopping malls of low trust. In addition, managerial implications are provided.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.23-35
• /
• 2020

This study is based on prior research cases on workplace learning, which had a significant impact on corporate research. To improve problem solving and supplementing ability by keeping the opportunity to participate in workplace learning for the weak small business owners and to strengthen opportunities for practical growth, and to propose education, policy and institutional windowing. Therefore, to establish the relationship between small business owners' workplace learning, job satisfaction, and service quality, a research hypothesis was set in the background of prior research and empirical analysis was conducted. The results from 203 questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS 18.0 program. As an analytical result, first, workplace learning had a partial positive (+) impact on job satisfaction. Second, workplace learning had a partial positive (+) impact on service quality. Third, in the relationship between workplace learning and service quality, job satisfaction played a full mediating role. From this, it was found that formal learning, the subfactor of workplace learning did not have an impact on job satisfaction and service quality, as subtitle of educational environment including offsite training and self education, systematization, and structuralization depending on the poor environment of small enterprises. Therefore, it was found that small enterprises' poor environment was revealed from the managerial, economic and social perspectives and to compensate such defect, educational, policy, and institutional strategies to strengthen the opportunity for growth and development of small enterprises can be suggested to the governmental agencies or local governments. Despite the significant results of this study, there may be limitations. Therefore, further studies should be conducted in various fields with various samples in the future, and further studies should be conducted in academic and practical relationships that can improve the service quality and management performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.79-94
• /
• 2000

The purposes of this study were to : (a) analyze university students' perception and patronage behaviors to the service quality dimensions, and (b) assist university residence hall foodservices in formulating improved managerial strategies. Questionnaires were hand delivered and mailed to 1,210 university students residing in the residence hall and 13 foodservice managers. A total of 1,011 was usable; resulting in 83.6% response rate. The survey was conducted between October, 1998 and May, 1999. Statistical data analysis was completed using the SAS/Win 6.12 for Descriptive Analysis, $x^2-test$, T-test, ANOVA, and Stepwise Multiple Regression. Forty-seven percent of the respondents indicated that 'taste' was their first priority when choosing a menu. The reasons behind choosing residence hall foodservice were 'location', 'board plan', 'price', 'taste', 'opening hours', and 'menu variety'. The main reasons of dissatisfaction with the residence hall foodservice were 'board plan', 'taste', 'menu variety'. The overall satisfaction score was 2.99 out of 5. The satisfaction score of ${\ulcorner}convenience{\lrcorner}$, ${\ulcorner}food\;quality{\lrcorner}$ and ${\ulcorner}menu\;variety{\lrcorner}$were 3.25, 2.94 and 2.76, respectively. Generally, male students were more satisfied than females. Graduate students and students living in residence halls over six semesters were the most dissatisfied with the residence hall foodservice. Residence hall students were dissatisfied with the variables ${\ulcorner}menu\;variety{\lrcorner}$ and ${\ulcorner}facilities{\lrcorner}$in 'self-operated' operations, whereas ${\ulcorner}food\;quality{\lrcorner}$, ${\ulcorner}menu\;variety{\lrcorner}$ and ${\ulcorner}price{\lrcorner}$ in 'contracted' operations. Foodservice operations with 'less than 1,000 meals serving per day' was the highest satisfaction score(3.36) among other serving sizes. Meal price with 'less than 1,300 won' was most satisfied with students. When overall customer satisfaction and service quality dimensions were analyzed by Stepwise Multiple Regression ${\ulcorner}food\;quality{\lrcorner}$(p<.001), ${\ulcorner}price{\lrcorner}$(p<.001), ${\ulcorner}facilities{\lrcorner}$(p<.001), ${\ulcorner}convenience{\lrcorner}$(p<.001), ${\ulcorner}menu\;variety{\lrcorner}$(p<.001), ${\ulcorner}manager's\;attitude{\lrcorner}$(p<.0l), and ${\ulcorner}atmosphere{\lrcorner}$(p<.01), in decreasing order, significantly impacted on ${\ulcorner}overall\;customer\;satisfaction{\lrcorner}$.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among service quality, self-efficacy, achievement need, and satisfaction in internet shopping mall entrepreneurial education. In this research, service quality consists of four factors including curriculum(lecturer expertise, distinction, and diversity of curricula), type(theory-oriented and practice-oriented), and administration(operation, facility and networking). First, this study investigated how service quality affected both self-efficacy and achievement need, second analyzed how both self-efficacy and achievement need influenced the satisfaction in internet shopping mall entrepreneurial education. The data were obtained from a questionnaire handed out to a random sample of 129 individuals that Cafe 24 in progress in the shopping mall entrepreneurial education. With the information obtained, and after the scales validation process, a structural equation analysis has been conducted. The analysis results indicate that service quality affects both self-efficacy and achievement need. According to the analysis, first, expertise, distinction and operation affect self-efficacy, second both expertise and operation affect achievement need. In addition, the results show that self-efficacy and achievement need influenced the satisfaction of entrepreneurial education. Finally, based in the findings of this study, theoretical contribution and managerial implications are discussed.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.7
• /
• pp.353-374
• /
• 2001

Price and brand are two major attributes of products that consumer purchases. Price is important because it is often a measure of worth and quality. Some consumers purchase only well-known national brands. However, By reason of the price competition on account of new business condition and depressions, and consumers practical and rational purchasing tendency, consumers tend to purchase private brands(PB hereafter) because as consumers they expect that producers have reasonable and acceptable quality. Accordingly, The study, with intrinsic cue, extrinsic cue, familiarity anything like these cues from the study of Richardson et aI(1994, 1996), intends to present current topics we guide in retailer's promotion strategy for PB. As for investigating how quality evaluation has on effect on the private brands purchasing behavior of discount store grocery items. This study establishes a hypotheses on the basis of the quality evaluation cues of PB and literature review for purchasing behavior and collects materials for consumers about 196, and also analyzes them using a variety of SPSS/PC+package program. Therefore, the findings of this study provide the following managerial implications. 1) Retailer will successful in increasing private brand market share through dramatic improvement in package design, labeling, advertising, and branding strategies. 2) Planned Purchasers have high intention to repurchase PB because they buy them reasonably in accordance with the estimate therefore, they might have word-of-mouth effect for the evaluation of quality and recognition. They need to acknowledge benefits for PB purchases to maintain purchase like that. 3) The main consumers are housewives in their thirties and forties and they something reasonably because they have a lot of family and retailer will work out.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.17-38
• /
• 2019

With recent dispersion of sharing economy, consumption culture of sharing, instead of ownership, gets wide spread in the age groups of 20-30. Even though the market of car sharing expands rapidly, little research has been done in the area of service quality and consumer behavior regarding car sharing services. Given that future market potential gets larger, it seems highly meaningful to conduct research on customer satisfaction and their usage behavior regarding car sharing services. This paper intends to analyze main factors affecting overall customer satisfaction on car sharing services; satisfaction on service quality, satisfaction on service product, and satisfaction on service experience. Each dimension of the three factors is also analyzed to see if there is any differences between major three brands. Further analysis has been done for checking any effects of gender and usage purpose of customers on the overall customer satisfaction. Key results of the analysis show all the three main factors have significant effect on overall customer satisfaction. Each dimension of service quality has significant effect on satisfaction on service quality. Dimensions of parking lot accessability and vehicle maintenance in service product evaluation, have greater effect on satisfaction on service product. In service experience, positive affect have greater effect than negative affect on satisfaction on service experience. Women users perceive larger overall customer satisfaction on car sharing services than men users. On the types of usage purpose, Users with purpose of tour and dating/meeing friends perceive larger overall customer satisfaction on car sharing services than user without it. Further managerial implications of car sharing services are also provided.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.91-124
• /
• 2009

With the intensity of competition and the standardization of technical attributes in telecommunications service market increasing, differentiated activity and customer experience in service encounter is regarded as an important means for creating customer value, however, there is a dearth of good literature examining what MOT activity is composed of according to consumption chain, and how service quality of MOT has influenced customer performance. Especially there exist various services across different phase of Product life cycle(PLC) in household telecommunication service market, customer requirement for MOT might depend on whether its phase is introduction-growth stage or maturity-decline stage, the empirical study is completely lacking. This study classified household telecommunication services into two types by PLC, VOIP and IPTV as Introduction-growth stage services, Internet and PSTN as maturity-decline stage service, and investigated whether there exists a gap between service types in how consumer have experienced MOT, what they consider as important and the relative importance of quality dimension how service quality of MOT has influence on consumer performance. The empirical result from 858 participants shows that there is a difference in consumer experience and requirements across different phases of the PLC, tangibles and assurance are regarded as the most important service quality factors which have a positive influence on customer performance (consumer satisfaction, repurchase intention and word of mouth) at the introduction-growth stage, whereas, reliability, empathy and interactivity are at the maturity-decline stage. Finally, managerial implication is made, limitation is clarified and a direction for further studies is suggested.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.255-264
• /
• 2020

The fourth industrial revolution has attracted much academic attention in these past few years. However, research on systematic and extensive factors affecting adoption of Industry 4.0 by SMEs in developing countries, especially in Vietnam, has been unavailable. This study aims to explore the impact of factors that influence the actual adoption of Industry 4.0 by SMEs in Ho Chi Minh City. Mixed-method research was utilized in this study including in-depth interviews of 12 participants and quantitative research of 396 respondents who are representative of SMEs by both online and via paper surveys. The SPSS and SmartPLS 3 software were employed to help analyze the collected data. The results indicate that perceived development of the human resource, perceived on-time, perceived saving cost, perceived improve product quality, perceived saving time, perceived ease-of-use, business resources, and conditions of the business environment, perceived usefulness, perceived enhanced customer relationship, and adoption intention, all have a positive significant effect on actual adoption of Industry 4.0. The results seem to suggest that managerial efforts aimed at increasing the factors' perceptions of adoption of Industry 4.0 and personal relevance of the technology will contribute to implementation success, where success is defined as effectual usage of the Industry 4.0.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 2019

The paper proposes a knowledge innovation performance model by the dynamic data envelopment analysis with slacks-based measure approach for evaluating the effectiveness of 30 regional knowledge innovation activities in China from 2010 to 2016. In recent years, China has paid more attention to knowledge innovation activities, as central and local governments have pushed on with their innovation projects by lots of investment whatever the difficulties may be. Decision-maker is usually interested in judge its knowledge innovation performance relative to target benchmark by exploring whether one provincial administration region performs better among others and/or if the growth of economy will be benefited greatly by the knowledge innovation activities. To acquire the managerial insight about this issue from a comprehensively designed performance evaluation model, knowledge innovation activity is conceptualized as an intertemporal production process. Invention patent and regional gross product are imposed on desirable outputs, highlighting the need for knowledge economy. The empirical result shows that knowledge innovation has a positive effect on economic development. At the same time, decision-maker should be interest in the economic effect of patents' type and quality. The government should then encourage new technical applications with greater commercial value from a market-oriented perspective, in order to benefit the most from the innovation process in the short-run.